Filed under: Strikeforce, FanHouse Exclusive
Ryan Couture was about 14 years old when he heard his father Randy was going to compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It was the spring of 1997, Ryan was a ninth-grader, and the sport — then more commonly referred to as “No Holds Barred” or NHB — was still in its wild west infancy.
“It definitely took some getting used to when I saw the videos of him fighting and hitting people,” he told MMA Fighting. “That was kind of freaky for me at first, but I got over it pretty quick. The more I learned about the sport, the more I grew to love it.”
It would take years, but Ryan would eventually find his own path towards the sport, and on Aug. 13, he’ll become the first son to follow a high-profile father into major MMA when he makes his pro debut on the Strikeforce Challengers 10 show.
Mixed martial arts is a young man’s game, and a young game itself, and because of the combination, we’ve yet to see many legacies passed along from father to son. Other sports have seen countless generations roam their fields and playing surfaces. Baseball had the Bondses and Griffeys, football had the Mannings and Winslows, baseball had the Bryants and Waltons, hockey had the Hulls and Howes.
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